Wednesday 22 December: Government caught between those isolated by fear and those who can’t bear Covid regulations

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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665 thoughts on “Wednesday 22 December: Government caught between those isolated by fear and those who can’t bear Covid regulations”

        1. Morning!
          At least, I think it is, although still darker than the inside of a cabinet minister.

      2. How will they blame the non-vaccinated when the majority of the latter have had the infection and are protected by their acquired immunity? When the vast majority of the sick are those thrice jabbed the story will have worn very thin. When the fourth jab is recommended the scales will fall from more people’s eyes. Sadly it will be too late for those that have indulged the government. Much anger waiting in the wings?

    1. You can’t complain, Bob3. (Good morning, btw.) After all, it is the season of Frosty (the Snowman). Lol.

  6. Government caught between those isolated by fear and those who can’t bear Covid regulations

    The government are the ones causing the fear and the regulations are quite mad, they have nothing to do with being bearable.

  7. Morning all

    Share

    Government caught between those isolated by fear and those who can’t bear Covid restrictions

    SIR – The Government is in a cleft stick. It relayed the scientists’ doom-laden prophecies to the public, and a great percentage of the population are self-isolating out of fear. That badly affects the retail and hospitality sectors.

    In the meantime it is becoming clear that, for vaccinated and healthy individuals, catching the omicron variant will be no more dangerous than a heavy cold – something we deal with every winter without hysteria.

    So, if Boris Johnson decides that something like another lockdown is required, he will alienate the large proportion of the population little affected by Covid. If he lets things go on as they are, he will alienate those who have been frightened.

    The biggest problem is not the “exponentially rising number of cases” but the loss of available workers through the 10-day isolation rule. The answer is to allow life to carry on as normal for the vaccinated majority of us. Clearly, for the vulnerable or those with underlying medical problems, more care should be taken.

    For those who are unvaccinated out of choice, I have no sympathy, as they are the ones ultimately putting the most strain on the NHS. They should not complain when their freedoms are restricted by controls such as Covid passports.

    Howard G March

    Birmingham

    SIR – The risk of a vaccinated person dying of Covid-19 is minimal, so it’s time Britain learnt to live with it. Oxford University’s QCovid risk calculator reduced my risk of dying of Covid from 1:23 to 1:27,000 after three vaccinations.

    Restrictions seem now for the large part to be for protecting the unvaccinated. This should not constrain those who have had the jab.

    Dr Duncan Hall

    Sidmouth, Devon

    SIR – Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, has expressed frustration at the failure of many Premier League footballers to accept vaccination. The Government keeps urging people to be inoculated, which also suggests vexation with anti-vaxxers.

    The answer with football is for managers to agree not to use unvaccinated players in their first teams. That would make them think twice, as they would lose their win bonuses and become less attractive to would-be purchasers.

    The Government has more of a problem. Hospitals increasingly have to treat unjabbed Covid patients and their selfishness may increase waiting lists for elective surgery. However, the solution of making the unvaccinated in hospital with the virus pay for their treatment isn’t politically feasible.

    Another possibility is to make Covid passports mandatory for entry to pubs and so on. However, that would meet opposition from businesses affected and the 100 or more Conservative MPs who won’t abide further restrictions. Someone, somewhere has to find an alternative answer.

    Robin Nonhebel

    Swanage, Dorset

    SIR – Why has the BBC has stopped publishing the daily hospital admissions data on the 10 o’clock news? Surely this key metric is vitally important when assessing if the NHS is about to be overwhelmed.

    Jonathan Hutchinson

    Hadstock, Cambridgeshire

    SIR – The nation now has a strong and ever increasing triple vaccination base on which to meet omicron on the pandemic battlefield.

    Building resistance on top of vaccination will likely be dependent on further exposure to omicron or delta. We are told symptoms may be no worse than a common cold or flu, which we have to live with in any case.

    This suggests that future lockdowns and restrictions should be replaced by progressively getting back to normal.

    It would be helpful for the NHS to issue guidance and drug recommendation for patients who need nursing at home.

    Philip Congdon

    Poyntington, Dorset

      2. TPTB really don’t like the notion of a ‘control group’ existing to puncture their jabathon efforts. When the dust finally settles, politicians, civil serpents and the meeja will face a tsunami of legal challenges.

        Although it is likely that the first two will be able to duck behind a taxpayer-funded shield of lawyers, things may become more interesting once the ‘free press’ and ‘talking heads’ start to get picked off for their baseless statements and ignorance of Nuremberg.

        Fittingly, this Chyneez flu may cause the meeja to live in interesting times. They will not go quietly and will aim to drag down as many political schemers as they can misquote.

        Buy shares in piano wire..

  8. Jacobites and slavery

    SIR – The National Trust for Scotland has drawn a connection between Culloden battlefield, site of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s final defeat, and the evils of slavery (report, December 21).

    It is unfortunate that it did not mention the sale of Jacobite prisoners as indentured servants to plantation owners in the West Indies. For example, 68 from Glen Urquhart and Glen Moriston were sent to Barbados. Within 10 years, only 19 were still alive.

    Keith Aitchison

    Inverness

    SIR – As everyone in Bonnie Prince Charlie’s day was touched by slavery, wouldn’t it save a lot of trouble if we just cancelled the 18th century?

    Charles Holden

    Micheldever, Hampshire

  9. When a school report offers unexpected insight

    SIR – A school report (Letters, December 21) that perfectly summed up my daughter’s personality read: “Kate is the life and soul of the party; unfortunately we are not having a party.”

    Margaret Hawks

    Clevedon, Somerset

    SIR – My daughter’s Latin teacher wrote an end-of-term report that brought our family great joy: “Sarah has had a year of peaceful apathy. It would have seemed a shame to wake her. Her exam result was marginally better than her somnolence led me to expect.”

    Tarn Taylor

    London SW10

    SIR – I recall one form master’s report describing me as “taciturn”. I went on to learn the bagpipes.

    Ian L King

    Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

    1. One of my teachers spotted a trait that has lasted to this day: ‘His manner seems rather casual’.

      1. One of my reports said, “A– will never do well in Mathematics until she learns the times tables.”

        Things skip generations as my dad was a wizard with numbers as is my son. That ability passed me by.

  10. What happened to China’s missing tennis star? 22 December 2021.

    Did a senior Chinese politician rape one of the country’s leading tennis stars? That certainly seemed to be the allegation from Peng Shuai, the former women’s world doubles champion. In a social media post in November, she wrote about her three-year affair with former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli: ‘You took me into your bedroom, wanting to have sex with me. That afternoon I cried and originally didn’t agree.’

    This accusation is almost certainly true, not because it is China or that the alleged rapist was a high ranking official in the Chinese Communist Party but because of the cover up involving state assets afterwards. This said it is ever one of the real drawbacks to living in a totalitarian state. It’s not the lack of voting or representation but that you become in effect the slaves of those running the system. Lavrenty Beria was the head of the NKVD in Soviet Russia and used it for kidnapping young girls off the streets of Moscow and then raping and murdering them. He was never brought to justice for these crimes. It is always the story where socialism rules supreme. Freedom. Life itself are no longer yours. You exist only at the whim of your political masters.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-happened-to-china-s-missing-tennis-star-

    2. And an army of Pavlik Morosovs to dob you in if you utter a peep of complaint.
      Sounds like Scotland.

  11. Ageism

    A man decides to have a face-lift for his birthday. He spends £5,000 and feels really good about the results. On his way home he stops at a news-stand and buys a paper. Before leaving he says to the news-vendor, “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but how old do you think I am?”

    “About 35,” was the reply.

    “I’m actually 47,” the man says, feeling really happy.

    After that, he goes into McDonald’s for lunch, and asks the order taker the same question, to which the reply is, “Oh you look about 29”.

    “I am actually 47,” he answered.

    While standing at the bus stop he asks an old woman the same question. She replies, “I am 85 years old and my eyesight is going. But when I was young there was a sure way of telling a man’s age. If I put my hand down your pants and play with your balls for ten minutes, I will be able to tell your exact age.”

    As there was no one around, the man thought what the hell and let her slip her hand down his pants. Ten minutes later the old lady says, “OK, it’s done. You’re 47 years old.”

    Stunned, the man says, “That was brilliant! How did you do that?”

    The old lady replies, “I was behind you in line at McDonalds.“

          1. How do, Grizz. Same depth as you – enough to hide the grass, but that’s all.
            More being delivered as I write, though.

  13. Good morning, all. Sharp frost. Pinkish sky.

    Very relieved to see that the latest lockdown will be with us in very short order. Nasty thing, a winter cold.

  14. It is all downhill. A chorus of hate against the unvaccinated. One strong support for our thinking is that everything else is insane so why would the response to Covid by government and people be anything other than insane also?
    Examples of insanity in Scotland today.
    Importing aliens to the Hebrides. In the BBC Scotland TV segment yesterday the mother said it was wonderful, “everything is paid for”. There are about four million* Hazara people still to rescue from Afghanistan.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-59727414

    A young man, drugged to the eyeballs driving an illegal vehicle killed an old lady on the pavement. Nearly five years in jail, out unless than three.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-59742964

    One reaches the point where it looks like it is all aimed at being a deliberate destruction of a law-abiding, homogeneous Christian country.
    *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazaras

  15. Gove’s answer to the levelling up doubters. 22 December 2021.

    As Britain’s first Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove can surely be under no illusions as to the task that awaits him. But should any last vestiges of complacency remain, then the opening remarks to The Spectator’s panel discussion on social housing – held at the 2021 Conservative party conference – should have helped dispel them.

    When this “levelling up” policy was first announced I didn’t even bother giving a theatrical groan just jumped the rest of the paragraph and carried on reading. It is a phrase without meaning or intent. Anyone who believes it is a fool! It’s like Net-Zero; the result is only to be known in an undetermined and inaccessible future. It is a political variation on the Gypsy’s, “You will meet a Tall Dark Handsome Stranger”, he never appears but looking keeps you occupied.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/gove-s-answer-to-the-levelling-up-doubters

    1. I think the headline was meant to read “Gove is the answer to …”
      No mention of the 30,000 a year illegal immigrants all immediately put on the list for social housing. Stop them and the problem is reduced.
      (Another answer would be to designate certain areas as “al fresco residential” and the immigrants could live there, bits of waste land, under flyovers, that kind of thing. No social benefits whatever, of course.)

      1. And supply them with the bricks and mortar to build their own accommodation. They can also set up their own hospitals as so many of them are doctors and dentists.

  16. Was the Jan 6 “insurrection” a set up? Apparently, there are plenty of “unindicted co-conspirators” which is always a great way of knowing if the authorities are behind some big event that leads to government prosecutions and that is as old as the hills. There is an article with links that is linked to this overview. This 12 minute video gives a feel for what was going on. Meanwhile, grannies get the full force of the law bearing down upon them. There are thousands of hours of video of the events but very little has been released and one wonders why?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIbfelE5ou4

        1. But the narrative of how 4Chan totally screwed up Labeouf’s virtue flagging provocations is interesting.

          2. Very. They took note of aircraft passage over the flag and tied them in to particular flights.

    1. Trying to spoil a good story with the facts, may I point out that he can’t pay like that. If he doesn’t know that you can only pay up to 20p for each copper coin (1p & 2p), a total of 40p, then he shouldn’t be chancellor.

    1. The trashing of businesses and people’s lives and the burdening with debt* all to ‘save the NHS’ will cause vastly more misery, blighted lives and early deaths. Furthermore, without the taxes businesses generate there’d be no NHS.

      *Some £15,000 per taxpayer in a single year, some 50% of the average wage. If people were told that they’d have to work for nothing for 6 months of the year to repay that and the remaining 6 months to pay for the ongoing spending then we might have some common sense forced on our politicians and media.

      2. The interviewer should have asked him some relevant questions, not nonsense about Boris’s drinks party and so on. But Welby probably set the agenda in the first place.

        1. He will doubtless receive a congratulatory note from Cameron:

          “Floreat Etona! You’re doing a grand job in following the instructions we gave you to destroy the Church of England.”

    2. I saw that clip on a brief visit to “News”. It’s very sad that such man is in charge of the CoE. Bishops went into battle during the Crusades.

    3. Can this twerp sink any lower? Will somebody ‘rid us of this turbulent priest’ as Henry ll was heard to say?

      This Welby is working for Satan. He is certainly not doing God’s work

    4. Presumably the churches will be closed to the unvaccinated. An improvement on closing them to everybody.

    5. I am a baptised and confirmed member of the Church of England but I am beginning to yield to my wife’s suggestion that I should become a Catholic.

    2. In less enlightened times, we sent those who thought they were God to a lunatic asylum.
      Nowadays, they become Prime Minister.

      1. Morning! We live in a deeply corrupted society where lunacy is celebrated as a protected characteristic.

  21. Good morning and a frosty start it is too. A bit overcast at the moment, but dry and -3°C outside.

    1. I remember telling our boys about brass monkeys when they were at primary school. Christo, aged 6, bewildered his teacher on a cold morning when he declared: Il fait assez froid pour géler les testicules d’ un singe en laiton.

  23. Few more Laffs,’cause gawd knows we need them

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2853c059d802922cb0f3b5affcf1bfd4c93444457eb3c49f7168bccbd254e27c.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a29c2b79097b74de270a94b22e79728168702a50749fe6c8298f297a806c9f1d.jpg

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/–auzqMNMmoA/TiR6VBSvkRI/AAAAAAAADGU/KYb7WBZJMco/s400/anarchy-in-the-uk.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d179ba35f90883751041eaf3b1c199dba0d95fef81a5dc406e790ab471abb43.jpg

      1. Something, unfortunately, none of have any control over other than using Botox and that makes people look even worserer.

      2. Did she marry him of her own free will?

        Apart from his money what else did he have to offer as he is, without doubt, one of the most physically and mentally repulsive people in the world.

        Did she learn nothing from her expensive education? After all she went to a posh English school for girls (Badminton) followed by Bryanston – which is a school patronised by many wealthy and fashionable showbiz people – followed by St Hilda’s Oxford where she read PPE..

    2. Good for her 🙂
      I’m sure Sheikh Yamani has plenty left to support his other seven wives. I wonder if she had been one of four wives instead of eight, she might have got a billion.

    3. I wonder, how long it will be before he becomes a Divorced Widower…. al Epstein (If he really is dead)

    2. So she thinks that there’s something wrong with being transgender? In this country she’d be cancelled.

    4. I posted a comment under this article last night but the comments section seems to have been taken down. The point I made was that this ‘fake news’ was probably started by Macron’s team in order to swell the sympathy vote in the coming elections just as the Obama team milked the story that Michelle Obama was really a man for the same reasons.

    1. I’m puzzled by the top one.
      What is going to kill these unvaxxed people?
      A disease with a 99% survival rate?
      I don’t think so.

      1. I may be rolling the dice being both overweight, with asthma yet I would rather be given the choice than not. The state wants to remove that choice.

  28. One thing that I think is quite remarkable about omicron is that it has a built in calendar. For the next nine days (including today) it will be benign and completely harmless. Then, at the stroke of midnight 30/31 December – it becomes a deadly killer.

    Nature is marvellous, n’est-ce pas?

    2. Don’t, Bill. I raised this with chums – fervent covid fear chums and they couldn’t understand that it was solely political. They simply couldn’t get over the block in their heads that if it were virulent, the state would lock up now, not later.

      They simply repeated ‘But we’ll lock down over the new year’. Yes.. so why not now? ‘But, we’ll lock down in the new year…’

      It was sad, really.

    3. Our omicron is different. Eating out at a restaurant is no problem, but get a beer any it becomes a deadly threat.

  29. A BTL Comment:-

    Robert Spowart
    JUST NOW
    Message Actions
    “Regulations should require new builds, domestic and commercial, to be fitted with photovoltaic panels. Further planning considerations should include rainwater capture.”
    Writes Michael Marks.

    As long ago as the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which came close to forcing fuel rationing onto the UK, it was obvious that we needed to reduce our reliance on imported energy.
    Ever since then I have supported new build houses being fitted with roof mounted solar water heating systems as a minor contribution towards this.

      1. Not a bad idea. Also integrate solar panels and batteries as well. Positive air pressures devices to keep air circulating would be handy too. Homes should also have a fixed degree of green space to dry clothes outdoors.

        The problem is, we’ve a limited amount of space and the govenrment is bringing in a quarter to half a million unwanted, illegal, useless gimmigrants every year. It’s controlling where we can build and thus developers are jamming ever more in less space for profit, so the useful things are being ignored over making a profit.

    2. I like your prior blank comment, now removed, as it gave me the opportunity to say “ That’s just how I feel about Johnson at the moment: empty, useless and a waste of space.”

      1. 343120+ up ticks,
        Morning D,
        To some he & tory (ino) party are world leaders regarding the
        replace/ reset campaign, you cannot fault them for treacherously manipulating the peoples, with, wait for it, the peoples consent.

        1. My off-grid greenhouse implementation is independent of intermittent natural rainfall and that also means that it is hands-free as many oonanists will appreciate

  30. 343120+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    December: Government caught between those isolated by fear and those who can’t bear Covid regulations,

    This is more slick bullsh!te where the overseers are hitting a stumbling block regarding their gene therapy
    jab campaign, and peoples making a common sense,
    their right, choice.

    Seemingly Pharmaceutical pfizer are releasing data in 3 month batches which will take over 70 years to reveal all, and come out as a double deceit offering along with the Dunblane cover up.

    I see personally via the last two by elections the
    electorate instead of sharpening blades & pitchforks are
    sharping pencils for use within the polli ng booth in
    support of,in the main, the same odious political
    setup.
    No thoughts of building on, en masse, a pro English / UK fringe party in opposition.

    Fact, the indigenous are being herded towards the “showers” and are in the main seemingly, willingly, submitting to manipulation by getting precisely what they voted for, Country wide annihilation.

      1. I did, thank you. However, I spent a lot of time replying to the tsunami of good wishes sent to me via Messenger and other email sources. I was delighted that so many people bothered to wish me well, but didn’t wish to be rude by not thanking them! Lol.

  33. BTL on the Alison Pearson article

    The NHS is under such pressure that in the new year it

    will sack tens of thousands of doctors and nurses for not being jabbed.

    While at the same time it suffers from bed blocking by patients who

    don’t need to be in hospital but can’t be discharged because the care

    homes they do need lack capacity having been instructed to dismiss their

    staff who haven’t been jabbed.

    Does no one in government do joined up thinking?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/12/21/cheering-christmas-message-time-humanity-prevail-scientists/
    Not to mention staff shortages over pinging for a mild cold!!
    No leave left?? Here have a Lateral Flow Test and an Orange Juice!!

    1. Joined up thinking. Oh you sweet summer child. Government is arrogant, incompetent, lazy, dictatorial, abusive, inept, spiteful, malignant, wasteful, useless, expensive, destructive, cretinous and stupid. It is run by people with no useful experience who like building empires to suit their ego.

      They don’t care what the rational decision would be, they’re unthinking authoritarians.

    1. H’mmm …. call me a scaredy cat; call me unscientific’; but I’m more bothered about being vaporised by a nuke than catching a bad cold.
      I am just soooooooo twentieth century.

    2. Vladimir has spent 20 years getting his ducks in a row while Russia has taken more and more sanctions .
      He has sent the US and NATO a set of demands which he knows they cannot accept.
      Having just visited India several weeks ago and finalised details with President Xi of China i think we will see some form of confrontation within three months.

      1. Yo HM

        we will see some form of confrontation within three months.

        I hope social distancing will be maintained, in accordance with (iaw) Johnson’s New Lockdown Orders

    3. Why are we prodding the bear?

      Russia is paranoid about getting invaded again – understandable given the enormous sufferings in the past each time a powerful foe has marched across their lands, be they Genghis Khan, Napoleon or Hitler. Like a hungry bear, it is opportunistic and given an unguarded picnic basket, the bear will help himself and get pretty stroppy if then someone tries to take the bun off him. Putin is the head of the bear and has much the same instincts.

      So, with all this NATO activity going on within sight of the bear’s territory, such as the former Soviet Baltic states and Ukraine, it is likely to provoke a charge unless one backs off very carefully and never turn one’s back on the bear while doing so.

      Any zookeeper knows that the best friend of anyone dealing with bears is the pot of honey. When spread liberally around the branches, the bear is far more interested in finding where the honey is hidden than in any abstract threat. Likewise, I remember one Cold War strategist remarking that it’s wonderful what can be achieved with a crate of whisky.

  36. 343120+ up ticks,

    What did you do post referendum daddy ?

    Continued to support the lab/lib/con coalition in their great reset / replace quest, just think, you & your sister would never have found such joy as you have via foreign paedophilia since it being legalised.

    Unfortunate but we had to thin out the herd mainly by
    neglect and placement of certain sufferers among others
    not yet infected, really an update on zyklon A but with little blame on results.

    https://twitter.com/calvinrobinson/status/1472945361119551493

    2. One of our marmalade cats is sitting as close to the stove as he can. Gus. Pickles is out hunting.

      1. Lily is snuggled up next to me – usually she likes to be outside. She’s old and feels the cold.

        1. Our two seem oblivious to it! Shortly after I posted, Gus went out and Pickles came in and took the place in front of the stove!!

  38. It’s the little victory’s that put a smile on your face………
    My row over council tax moved up a notch on Monday when I got the latest set of threatening letters/bills with notice that I would be summonsed if I didn’t cough up the lot within 7 days..
    After several phone calls I finally got to speak to someone today and informed them I would pay off the 3 years arrears at £26 a month “How do you calculate that” she said
    It took you 3 years to send me a bill at that amount it will take me 3 years to pay you off I replied
    Oh,OK then

  39. ‘Dozens of asylum seekers are begging Boris Johnson to help rehouse them, claiming the Home Office accommodation in his constituency is not fit to live in.

    The 18 rundown flats in Uxbridge and South Ruislip have housed some asylum seekers for years without any improvements being made – despite repeated complaints. Each apartment has five tiny bedrooms and no communal space, besides kitchens and bathrooms left filthy from a lack of maintenance’.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/22/asylum-seekers-in-pms-constituency-claim-accommodation-not-fit-to-live-in

    Might be a simpler reason, other than ‘lack of maintenance’, for kitchens and bathrooms being left filthy.

    1. If they are asylum seekers then they shouldn’t be in this country. You apply, then are granted.

      Beggars can’t be choosers. You don’t get what you want solely because you want it.

    2. Filthy barstewards living there. Tell ’em to buy a bottle of Flash & get scrubbing – they have nowt else to do.

        1. Does seem a bit daft, let’s all list our professional qualifications! Aren’t we egotistical!

          2. Don’t solicit for your sister – that’s not nice
            Unless you get a good percentage of her price.

            (Tom Lehrer)

          2. No, it’s just a grey day with the temperature a balmy 45°. May go for a refreshing dip in Urquhart Bay…

        3. Accountants usually add A.C.A, F.C.A. or what have you to their written down names. The old joke was that when you asked somebody what he/she did for a living and he/she replied “I’m an accountant,” your follow up question was: “Chartered or Turf?”

          Likewise when at a cocktail party you asked a person what his hobby was if he or she answered, “Climbing.” your follow up question was: “Social or mountains?”

          Am I correct in thinking that solicitors do not always put letters after their names?

          And of course there is a sort of reverse snobbery in that when a doctor becomes a surgeon he ceases to be Dr and becomes Mr.

      2. I was on the verge of proposing the same reason but without figures. This tweet above confirms why.

        Last evening a tweet gave the figures for Omicron hospitalisations, 116 and deaths, 14, the latter all WITH. It wasn’t stated whether the admissions were because Omicron was the prime reason or whether the patient was admitted for some other illness and ‘tested’ positive after admission. Knowing the government/NHS, I suspect the latter.

    2. As with most things, I expect the facts have got in the way of government propaganda.

      Another perspective is why is the data not brokn down into components, such as overall deaths (from anything), hospitalisations/ deaths with omicron by age group, then hospitalisations / deaths by age group with co-morbidities.

      With such a breakdown, from verifiable, cross checkable sources would make for trustworthy information. However, I imagine that would disagree with big government policy.

      2. My Dad was recently admitted to hospital due to concerns about his dementia. He tested positive for Covid whilst in hospital (presumably he caught it there). I am sure that he will be listed in the official stats as a ‘Covid hospitalisation’ and if God forbid he had died as a ‘Covid Death.’

        I myself had a positive PCR test three weeks ago. I am fine, but if I am hit by a bus today I will go down as a Covid Death. The stats have been manipulated so much to portray Covid as much more serious a threat than it really is. The question is – why?

        1. I asked a pathologist chum this. I wondered if hospitals got more wonga per covid instance. She didn’t know, but suspected something like that.

          Either way, it just seems utterly distorted.

      3. People must be protected from the truth. People must be protected from the facts.

        But people prefer hearing comfortable lies to hearing the truth. This calls to mind that old Elvis song:

        Honey you lied when you said you loved me
        And I had no reason to doubt you
        But I’d rather go on hearing your lies
        Than to go on living with out you.
        And now the stage is bare
        And I’m standing there
        With emptiness all around
        And if you won’t come back to me
        Then they can bring the curtain down.

      1. Caroline has two friends with non-Covid problems who should be in hospital but they are not because of the Covid risk of being in hospital.

        In fact sometimes the French system transports hospital beds into people’s homes for the duration of their illness to help keep them out of hospital.

        We delude ourselves in thinking that the NHS is the envy of the world.

    1. Well I’ve got it again!!! Still unvaccinated.
      Nothing more than a rotten cold this time.
      Probably caught from my vaccinated daughter who, being only very mildly symptomatic didn’t realise she had it and doled it out to the rest of us.

        1. Lateral flow only, so far. The PCR is coming in the post. I’ll get the confirmation in a couple of days.
          The odd thing is that the Missus had a cold all last week and tested negative three times. Now she’s better she’s tested positive.
          I don’t care besides the fact that it may seriously disrupt our Christmas. Her elderly mother lives with us and she mustn’t get it.

          I had the first version in March 2020 and I was as sick as you could be without ending up in hospital. It kept me immune for nearly two years. If this omicron is the natural vaccine some medics are saying I can cope with the runny nose and sneezing.

          1. I think I had the first version in January 2020 – the cough lasted for several weeks, though I wasn’t particularly ill.
            Your Missus probably just has the remains of the virus showing up now. Hope the old lady will be ok.
            I expect if we’d had all this testing BC – we’d all be positive when we had a cold.

          2. I was laid low in February 2020 with “un-flu” for several days, after a conference at the airport. Missed the annual skiing holiday… :-(( Suspect it was early Covid. No instant tests back then…

      2. Bummer. Hope you’re over it soon.
        Plenty garlic and chilli in the food, plenty strong beer (alcohol takes away the suffering, liquid keeps you reasonably hydrated).
        Rest, and Nottle. Nowt else to do, anyway.

  42. 343120+ upticks,

    Six months in, GB News is defying its Left-wing critics – except on one issue
    The channel is winning scoops via Nigel Farage and forging a confident voice. But a lack of advertising is just what its critics want to see

    Is this the same N farage decrying decent peoples some time back?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc7iuUHk3Yk

      1. 343120+ up ticks,
        Morning KtK,
        If you are meaning the farage bit NO way, that man done a lot of damage, intentionally and took down decent peoples, no peace for the wicked & his actions were wickedly evil.

    2. Yes. It strikes me Farage was unfair with Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson). He left UKIP for the same reason the latter left the EDL. Because they were being taken over by extremists.
      But it was Tommy Robinson who stopped the absurd BLM marches. And his news channel on Telegram is full of information that MSM aren’t covering. A sort of tabloid GB News.

      1. I do not agree with Farage on many things – that does not mean that I systematically disagree with him on everything.

        1. … which shows you to be thoughtful and rational.
          I take it you were educated in a bygone age when reasonableness was valued.

      2. I do not agree with Farage on many things – that does not mean that I systematically disagree with him on everything.

    4. Good morning, ogga

      As you know, I agree with you on many things but I wish you would sometimes consider realistic alternatives to the things and people you dislike.

      1. 343120+ up ticks,

        Afternoon R,
        I do know how you feel only in my case the feeling is intensified via suffering the fall out of lab/lib/con
        party before Country supporter / voters, especially
        the open treachery over the last 3 plus decades & their odious cavalier attitude to the welfare of these Isles via party first which has resulted in killings & mass paedophilic rape & abuse etc,etc,etc, ongoing.

        So I am guilty of repeating facts in an honest fashion,perhaps it is that that upsets your regular lab/lib/con current supporter / voter.

  43. Russian and American negotiators will hold talks early next year about reducing worsening tensions between Moscow and NATO, the two nation’s top diplomats confirmed on Wednesday.
    Speaking as part of an exclusive interview with RT, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the countries were planning to hold talks in January, confirming a statement his counterpart in Washington, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, made to journalists the day before.

    Asked about the US reaction to a series of security proposals put forward by Moscow earlier this month, Lavrov replied that “speaking about the real reaction, not the rhetorical one, I would say it’s businesslike on the side of our American colleagues. There was a series of conversations on the level of the presidents’ foreign policy aides, and, as a result of the contact, there was an agreement on organizational models for future work.”

    1. From some of the replies it seems the good citizens of Chicago aren’t that happy with their Mayor!

    2. My response to the ignorant Mayor, “Absolutely NO vaccination for me, as none give immunity as a vaccine should, no-one knows the long-term effects and now it induces myocarditis that my chronic heart disease couldn’t withstand.

      Now un vaccinated, I’m labelled a pariah.

      Nuremberg Code – look it up.“

    1. What ’til they sue for wrongful arrest and imprisonment, and then get awarded sufficient to buy lots more boats.

      1. That’ll be the next move for sure Sos.
        I think it’s perfectly obvious that any one who arrives on our shores in an open boat with no proven ID and after camping out for months or even years in another country has no legal right whatsoever to be allowed to land, let alone enter with assistance and stay here and be housed and fully financed. Who are these so called judges ? Who put them in place ? And why are the people of Britain being forced to accept all these thousands of illegal immigrants ? It makes no particular sense whatsoever. All this crass and anti social stupidity from a handful of left wing toffs will be costing the UK tax payers billions and for what gain ?

          1. I ain’t goin’ into an effin’ care home Sos didn’t I tell you that ? 😃🤣🤗

            My mother and my father in-law were both in ‘care homes’ not nice places to be.

    2. A known housebreaker, a burglar to trade, was arrested by police* in Inverness and brought before the Sheriff for the crime of “going equipped for house-breaking”. When the Sheriff found him guilty the convicted man complained that “the Sheriff should also convict him of rape as he was equipped for that”. The complaint cut no ice, and the convicted man went to prison for three months.

      *This is an old story, of course, as the police arrested someone for a real crime, the accused was tried, convicted and sent to prison.

    3. But the judges said that in order to secure convictions in cases of this kind, the prosecution must prove that the person accused of driving the boat “knew or had reasonable cause to believe that his act was assisting entry or attempted entry into the United Kingdom without leave”.

      I wonder if those judges would follow similar logic if the accused had raped the judges’ granddaughters.

  46. A post that I was writing has just vanished. Try again.
    Scotrail has a list of services that have been affect by changes and/or cancellation, as their website does not work vert well it is difficult to find out what is going on. Moreover an evening service shown as running may be cancelled at any time. Services are shown as having “minor changes”. A “minor change” includes cancellation. It is shambolic. It will be much worse tomorrow as Christmas Eve is a time when lots of people travel and there will probably be more staff off sick.
    Scotrail is being nationalised in 3 months following the failure of Abellio. The new Chief Operating Officer of the nationalised railway is currently the Vice-Principal of a University. My experience of such people is dismal. She was almost certainly a “kaffeeklatsch” appointment, a friend of a friend in my view.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-59730295

      1. No. I used to like travelling by train. I lived in Edinburgh and I did a lot of work in London in the mid-70s as a troubleshooter. It took 20 minutes to drive to the station to catch the sleeper, and a ten minute taxi ride from Kings Cross. I’d get the four o’clock train back the next day and have dinner in the dining car. Wonderful!
        However, a child is currently en route from Norfolk, via Lowestoft, Peterborough and the Edinburgh train, needing a connection at Waverley to the Borders. Some of the Edinburgh /Borders services are cancelled, so we’ll see…

  47. News just in ……..Lewis Hamilton thinks might be retiring from F1 and starting a new carer in music. But he needs to prove his future intentions, because he recently had problems ”passing the dutchy on the left hand side”.

          1. As a successful British sports man I use to respect and like him Bill. It was when he insisted that he’s black, when his mother was quite clearly a white lady and that finished my respect for him. There are also many footballers who have the same disrespect for their mothers.

          2. If they can remember who their mother is….None remember (or even knew) their fathers, of course.

  48. I’m fed up with the unvaccinated rump who risk pushing us back into lockdown
    Many of our difficulties are down to the failures of our nationalised health service, but the unjabbed don’t help

    PHILIP JOHNSTON ; https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/21/fed-unvaccinated-rump-risk-pushing-us-back-lockdown/

    The first thing a person who wants to become a tyrant or a dictator must realise is that you need to concentrate people’s mindless hatred and direct it towards a specific group whom you will relentlessly blame for everything that is wrong. Hitler understood this which is why he selected the Jews as the target of hatred and those to be blamed. Adolph the Abominable knew there would always be thoroughly gullible people who would eagerly follow his lead.

    Philip Johnson has shown how gullible he is and how extremely nasty he is. He is a mindless buffoon almost in the same class as Boris Johnson.

  49. Carl Henegan and Tom Jefferson on excess deaths in care homes.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/12/21/we-need-to-start-caring-about-care-homes/

    We assessed excess mortality among the elderly people that lived in homes compared to their peers in the community.

    What came out was quite shocking. Less than one per cent of elders
    (defined as those aged over 75) in Europe and America are in homes, yet
    they accounted for nearly one third of deaths attributed to Covid. There
    were also residual excess deaths among patients who tested negative for
    Covid. Moreover, studies we reviewed that looked back at the situation a
    decade ago found the same excess mortality in care homes – which was
    obviously long before Covid came along.

    2. If Pfizer have to post accounts then their sales can be matched to profits and, knowing the share of the sales that were bought by the UK, a reasonable guess can be made as to how much money has gone from the pockets of UK taxpayers to the pockets of, erm, business men.

    2. Call me ignorant, but the FOI letter is dated almost a year ago (31 December 2020). Where is there any reference to omicron? I must have missed something.

  53. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/12/16/billie-eilish-right-online-porn-damaging-children/

    I always worry about such arguments and debate as they ignore the fundamental problem. The parents are not talking to and teaching their children. Instead, big fat state seeks power and control over people.

    It won’t work. Most porn websites are not hosted in the UK. If you prevent access then it simply finds a way around the censorship. Kids are faster and more flexible than the incompetent and slow state.

    The problem is simple: if you keep applying regulation and limits then the porn goes underground, away from the state. There it becomes ever more violent and degrading with fewer protections. One woman I know was doing garage bangs (I’ll let folk fill in the gaps) for years until a ‘decent’ outfit got her under contract.

    The solution isn’t more state control. It isn’t more state intervention, more regulation, age checks – hell, kids aren’t paying for it anyway. The solution is less government, more family, better parenting. Thing is, there’s no role for big state to ‘do something’ and take the credit for that doing – regardless of the outcome.

      2. You mean in a cell in a hole in a prison serving a life sentence for the crimes he has committed.

        2. No, we solve the problem of Blair by chaining him by the neck in a sewer. Something just above the waterline so he has to constantly fight to keep from drowning but, when there’s a good flush, has no choice.

      3. Don’t forget the wooden stake, silver bullet and exposure to daylight to make sure we get rid of the pestilential bastard.

    3. “Lollygag, lollygag, hey lolly, lolly, lollygag”. That’s what I say to that former pupil of Fettes.

    3. A man cannot give birth. Therefore, she is a woman. A woman is the mother.

      Any other consideration is delusional, and the individual should be sectioned under the mental health act.

      1. Given the amount of hormones the ‘man’ would be taking, I dread to think of the effects on the child.

      1. When you look at all the pronoun nonsense, the trans weirdos you really have a group looking for an identity.

        They don’t know who they are and so create a false persona for themselves, one that’s entirely egocentric. Now, as they’re social animals, they seek out others like themselves to reinforce their ego. The problem is, these others are also egocentric and anti social so all you have is a clique looking for an identity in a group where there is none.

        There’s an irony of the ego identifying itself as a plural is the most indicative – I’m one of many – but also an indivdual. It’s newthink, doublespeak. The attempt to make others accept them for what they want to be, not who they are – because all they are is selfish.

        It comes down to ego – but the ego is refused by the majority, so they use force to impose their own ego on others. The greens do this as well.

        It’s the egocentric pushing their attitudes on others, in an attempt to force society to accept them. The problem is, they don’t know what they are because their entire self image is invented doublethink. How can society accept the unadulteratedly selfish, egotistical and irrational?

  57. Son and I have nasty colds and a rasping cough…and a head ache

    Moh playing golf , yes and he is sniffing as well . Couldn’t be persuaded not to play.

    I had a restless night , and my legs ached when I had a coughing fit.

    Lateral flow test was negative for son and I.

    4 jabs this year that is including the flu jab . I thought I would be immune to everything . I am a mask wearer as well .

    What is going on ?

    2. The common cold is very prevalent this autumn/winter. Both my wife and I have had it over the past few weeks. Probably because it hasn’t been circulating as much over the past 18 months due to lockdown etc.

    3. All of our family who haven’t really mixed for several weeks have had similar symptoms and friends who we have only spoken to have as well.
      But two of our sons have just had covid one for the second time, but symptoms were very mild and their live in families haven’t caught it.
      It all seems Very strange, call me and old septic but has another attempt to pass round another version of the virus been un-successful ?
      Pandemic is such a useful word when a government and it’s coron-ies are trying to control a population.

    4. Good afternoon Maggiebelle.

      Sniffing or not sniffing I am sure you are as lovely as ever.

      Does it ever occur to you that the whole vaccine gene therapy thing is a con trick?

    5. Initially there were reports that wearing a mask was not a healthy thing to do. Is that still the case or has the advice been changed, once, twice, thrice or more.
      Mask wearing seems to cause skin problems for many let alone any bugs being trapped in them.
      I am not sure jabs or masks is not giving the protection it was promised to do.

    7. Well, wearing masks doesn’t help, they recirculate the exhaled breath, all those nasty exhaled germs being breathed back in.

  58. Freezy riders! Pair of NAKED skiers are spotted on slopes of 4,000ft Scottish mountain on frozen -2C morning
    George Robertson, 64, was rambling a remote mountaintop on Cairn Gorm
    He spotted a nude man and woman through his camera lens on Saturday
    He said it was unusually warm that day, melting the snow and attracting walkers
    By HENRY MARTIN FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 11:38, 22 December 2021 | UPDATED: 11:56, 22 December 2021

    A pair of naked skiers were caught on camera up a 4,000ft mountain on a -2C winter morning.

    George Robertson, 64, was rambling a remote mountaintop on Cairn Gorm, a peak in the Grampian Mountains in the Highlands of Scotland, hoping to snap wild hares when he captured more than he’d bargained for.

    The retired father-of-three spotted a nude man and woman through his camera lens on Saturday as they clutched skis atop the snow-capped peak.

    ‘There was a group of five of us out taking wildlife photographs and we stumbled across these two naked skiers about 100 meters from the summit,’ he said.

    ‘It was quite a busy day because the weather was warm. I have walked in the Scottish mountains for close to 50 years and I haven’t come across that before.

    ‘It was just disbelief at first because I was looking through the camera, scouring the horizon and there was a couple standing there with no clothes on. So it was just shock and disbelief, and then we carried on looking for wildlife.

    ‘They could obviously see other people were on the mountain because we were clearly in their line of sight but they just carried on doing what they were doing, and then dressed and skied off.

    (What an old prude, and good for them , how nice to roll around in fresh snow )

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10335711/Pair-NAKED-skiers-spotted-slopes-4-000ft-Scottish-mountain-frozen-2C-morning.html?ito=push-notification&ci=lMWdfW2OID&cri=2t-BEPb1ix&si=26738248&ai=10335711

    1. Most of us looked better without clothes on when there was less of us to see.

      As we know, Grizzly is on a strict diet and aims to get his weight down to about 12 stone. He has already shaved off his beard but I wonder if, when he has reached his target, he will give us before and after photos – bearded and unbearded, both posed and adiposed.

        1. Neat beard, Grizz.
          Just reduced mine from the full Santa to a similar length last night. Much better. Less food gets dropped into it.

    3. Disgusting! I had to use my 1000mm lens because they were so far away and even then the image was blurred, but I am sure that the blobs in the photo are of two people skiing.

  59. Apropos a comment yesterday about Covidmas Univ Chal and Paxman seeming drunk – I watched last night.

    He has never been a man to whom I warmed, but I think the poor old sod is feeling the effects of Dementia or Parkinson’s or Altzheimer’s – or whatever he is suffering from.

    He was still able to read perfectly clearly (more than MOST people of radio or telly these days) and made a joke or two.

    I thought it really amusing that the compulsory bames had no idea about the answers to questions about blacks…!!

  60. Heard a snippet on inflation yesterday that gold is now worth $1800 for 30g. In 1995 it was $300.

    This is why our money buys so much less. Why we are so much poorer. Over 20 years our incomes have been devalued six times over.

  61. Roman Abramovich settles libel claim over Putin biography. Luke Harding. 22 December 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14e89a7f63bcdd9a02d799ca2a790ce4b95a4dadc6052681c5876d87dc134fd0.png

    Despite the revisions, the agreement is being seen overall as a victory for Belton, who has come under unprecedented legal assault from billionaires with Kremlin ties. Abramovich served for eight years as governor of Chukotka, a region in Russia’s far east. He has consistently denied being under the Russian government’s control.

    Despite everyone else agreeing that Abramovich has won this case Harding as an Mi6 shill has still tried to make it sound the opposite. Belton’s book was of course CIA sponsored anti-Putin propaganda, and notable only for its moronic excesses. That Vlad would be interested in possession of Chelsea Football Club must rank as one of the most stupid ideas ever to come out of Langley!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/22/roman-abramovich-settles-libel-claim-over-putin-biography

    2. CP piling on to kick Boris when he’s vulnerable, IMO.
      They’re desperate to get a True Believer in place.

  63. Junior has just finished making and serving cottage pie. Aside form some of the hot bits, he did very well.

    And used just about every saucepan, bowl and spoon we have.

        3. A few years back my good lady and i went to the Elvis exhibition at the London O2 Dome attachment, they had everything there except a pair of blues suede shoes. I was a bit disappointed. Not quite all shook up.

    3. The stats are for people who are positive for covid.
      Of those, you are four times more likely to have Omicron if you have had three jabs than if you had none. The stats categorically do not say you are four times as likely to get Omicron if you have had more jabs.

    4. Isn’t it because the former think they are invulnerable and therefore socialise more? It’s comparing apples and oranges.

        1. I was sent it by my mate last night, it’s the sort of thing we both make up he didn’t say where it came from.

      2. Yannick Noah retired from tennis to pursue a career in music. The kindest thing to say about that is that he was better at tennis.

  66. Steerpike
    What is the point of the Metropolitan Police?
    21 December 2021, 3:00pm

    https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt46d84c83f2df290d/61c1f9feb7f7e7205faab006/GettyImages-1236887683.jpg?format=jpg&width=1920&height=1080&fit=crop

    As the year draws to a close, it’s worth reflecting on which of our national institutions came out of 2021 in the worst shape. There’s the Foreign Office of course, whose failure to anticipate or prepare for the fall of Kabul was so brutally exposed by its top mandarin’s testimony earlier this month. There’s the Church of England, whose war on parishes came close to whipping up an Anglican insurrection. And then there’s the Conservative party, which seems to have embraced the dirigisme of Pompidou with none of the shiny infrastructure to match.

    But in a crowded field, the Metropolitan Police surely take the gold medal for the most incompetent and inept institution. On every count, the force seems to have gone backwards this year. It managed the rare feat of a hat-trick of very public scandals this year without a single resignation. There was the disgrace of the Sarah Everard vigil, when policemen dragged women away in handcuffs for mourning a girl murdered by a serving officer. There was the shambles of the Euro 2020 final, when drunken hooligans marauded around Wembley with the Met nowhere to be seen.

    And, perhaps most disturbingly, there was the Daniel Morgan inquiry which branded the force ‘institutionally corrupt’ with chief Cressida Dick personally censured for obstruction and named as one of those responsible for delaying the panel access to the police database. All this, alongside the humiliation of the long-running Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain protests at which officers seemed to get more annoyed at by-standers than those actually disrupting the public.

    That’s not to mention other disturbing episodes which stain the Met’s recent history. Earlier this month an inquest jury delivered a damning verdict on what they called ‘fundamental failings’ in the force’s investigation of four murders in 2014 and 2015 by serial killer Stephen Port. Accusations from the victim’s families that homophobia played a part in officers being unwilling to investigate comes came 18 months after similar claims that race played a role in the mishandling of the murders last June of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, two mixed-race sisters killed in a north-west London park. The Met initially refused to take seriously family members’ reports that the women were missing; two officers have since been jailed for criminal misconduct after taking photos of the women’s bodies and sharing images of the crime scene on WhatsApp.

    Perhaps excuses can be made for all these incidents. Perhaps the public would be willing to let standards slide if the Metropolitan Police demonstrated it was willing to do the basics properly. But there seems to be a consensus growing, at both a popular and elite level, that London’s police force has effectively given up on dealing with basic theft and criminal inquiries. Whether it’s high-profile incidents like Prince Charles’s aide being accused of selling honours or street-level crime that makes life miserable for others, the indication seems to be that the Met is simply not interested. Exasperation has seen an outpouring of such examples on Twitter today, featuring cases in which officers have been presented with black and white evidence of such crimes, only to immediately close the case before any inquiries can be made.

    Take for instance, the New Scientist reporter Matthew Sparkes, who was mugged for his bike three weeks ago. Shortly thereafter, he spotted his bike was advertised on Facebook, listed by the mugger in question. With another account he arranged to buy it back and got an address. He told the Metropolitan police and after a fortnight of chasing them managed to get an appointment for them to join him to pick it up. They didn’t bother to turn up.

    Or take the Guido Fawkes journalist Christian Calgie, whose £2,500 MacBook was stolen from his backpack. When he went to a police station with the exact location of the stolen device which was just a few doors down in a second-hand tech shop, the Met closed the case ‘due to no further leads.’ Other than the exact location of a shop, potentially containing other stolen items, what exactly did they need? Similar cases include someone being asked to track down their own cyberstalker; despite providing them with the man’s address, the police closed the case having failed to look up their address.

    Now data is not the plural of anecdote. But it’s clear that Londoners’ faith in the Met has fallen in the wake of repeated scandals, with a YouGov survey finding that 47 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men reported declining trust in the police following the Everard case. What’s clear too is the findings of watchdogs, with the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary warning in April that police forces across Britain have ‘increased the number of crimes they decided not to investigate’ during the Covid pandemic.

    And yet there seems to be no consequences for anyone at the top. Steerpike has already covered the lamentable track record of Cressida Dick, whose tenure at the helm has been littered with controversies. But the only thing saving Dick is the lack of any halfway decent replacement. Among her senior officers and would be successors include Neil Basu, head of specialist operations at the Met, and Stephen House, the Deputy Commissioner tasked with driving reform.

    Basu was the officer who hit the headlines in 2019 for threatening to prosecute journalists who published Kim Darroch’s leaked cables, prompting David Davis to call for his resignation. Stephen House meanwhile was previously the head of Police Scotland who was forced to quit in disgrace in 2015 after a litany of failures. These included officers taking three days to rescue a woman involved in the M9 car crash, the death of a black man in police custody, and rows over his use of armed police patrols and stop and search powers. It doesn’t say much about the Met’s culture that such men are promoted again and again – nor does it reflect well on Dick to have such a dearth of talent around her.

    With the Met showing little sign of any willingness to change and with both City Hall and the Home Office unwilling to grasp the nettle of reform, it’s just a tragedy that ordinary Londoners are the ones left to suffer once again.

    ************************************************************************

    Revolting Peasant • 18 hours ago
    The Constabulary (I refuse to call them ‘police’, it’s imperative to refer to them by their Common Law definition)
    Lost my trust 15 years ago after I was nicked for commenting why Police Scotland had sent an entire minibus of specials down our street to check tax discs, the day before I had a Peugeot 205 GTI I had just restored, stolen.
    I said to the Sgt “Low hanging fruit day, is it, Sarge?” And then explained to the cretin what I meant and asked why no one had come to speak to me about the theft of my car.
    He then proceeded to take offence and then arrested me for ‘obstruction’ and ‘assault on a police officer’ unfortunately for him my neighbour filmed the incident from his window which showed me speaking politely.
    I stupidly accepted an apology from the Chief Constable rather than sueing them but this was the days long before Crimebodge.
    Incidentally they found that my neighbour, the cameraman, had, unbeknownst to him been driving without insurance thanks to a clerical error by Tesco Insurance. They decided to arrest him at 3.00am with 2 vans and all the flashing lights so his neighbours were all woken up and put him in the van cuffed and in his pajamas, in front of his wailing kids (5,3 and 2).
    We are both professional men with families. We are meant to be the allies of the police.
    I have nothing but contempt for these jumped up school prefects in their absurd paramilitary uniforms (which is part of the problem and a problem forecast by the late Sir John Stalker). It was the police and their conduct that lost my support.
    We live in a true Anarcho-Tyranny state where criminals, violent rioters and perverts are indulged and supported by the CJS when hard working families are criminalised, bullied, thrown to the mercies of licensed crooks and corporates in cahoots with local government.

    Cheshuntboy • a day ago
    I’ve said before, and will no doubt say again, that I’m very glad that I don’t know any policemen/persons socially, because I’d struggle to keep my utter contempt for the whole lot of them in check, over the sausage rolls and sherry (Christmas fare for plebs like me). The same goes for doctors, dentists, nurses, NHS managers, politicians and the entire staff of the MSM (especially those responsible for casting our grotesque TV ads and dramas, in which black faces now predominate, literally). That’ll do for now.

    1. Or take the Guido Fawkes journalist Christian Calgie, whose £2,500 MacBook was stolen from his backpack. When he went to a police station with the exact location of the stolen device which was just a few doors down in a second-hand tech shop, the Met closed the case ‘due to no further leads.’ Other than the exact location of a shop, potentially containing other stolen items, what exactly did they need? Similar cases include someone being asked to track down their own cyberstalker; despite providing them with the man’s address, the police closed the case having failed to look up their address.

      My guess would be (as would be replicated in 1000s of other UK locations) an “arrangement” between the local station/constabulary and the said 2nd shop ….

    2. Seldom goes by a day when there is not a news report of some atrocity performed by a police officer from that useless den of iniquity.

    3. Kahnt has just announced an increase in council tax to all Londoners, except for the obvious cases. To pay for more police and fire services.
      And of course her and her colleagues pensions.

    1. I misread tat. I though you had gone a bit Scots, “Wash your lugs away with Lifebuoy soap.”

  69. “Full customs controls start on 1 January 2022.”
    Excellent ! Oh yes, sirreeBob! Everyone on holiday for a week or more, so choose that time to introduce horrible new, probably incomprehensible changes to Customs. Sensible people would have made the date 1 February so that preparations and work could take place beforehand and after.
    As it is, it looks pretty bad. The current processes do not work, (see my contretemps with the Dutch and the supine inaction of our Ministers).
    So these changes will give the Dutch and others more ammunition and more excuses to delay imports and exports.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/less-than-a-month-until-full-customs-controls-are-introduced?utm_campaign=1034950_Copy%20of%20Exports%20and%20International%20Markets%20-%20December%202021&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Scottish%20Enterprise&dm_i=4X7B,M6KM,1J5NGV,2OEGE,1#border-controls

    Edit – It is all going to be horrible, in my humble view.

    1. I sincerely hope that when this idiocy is done and dusted that huge numbers of class action lawsuits are taken against these corporate giants, if it turns out that the best possible approach would have been that route route rather than the vaccination scam.

  72. Money, money, money …. it’s a (very, very) rich man’s world:

    Podcasters Joe Rogan and Michael Malice discussed last week why the corporate press continues to dismiss ways doctors can treat Covid-19 aside from vaccination.

    Rogan said that Dr. Pierre Kory from the Front Line Critical Care Covid group treated him and hundreds of members of Congress with monoclonal antibodies, prednisone, z-pak, NAD, vitamins, and ivermectin.

    “By the way, 200 Congresspeople have been treated with Ivermectin for Covid. Google that. You can probably find that in Dr. Pierre Kory’s Twitter page,” Rogan said. “Before there were vaccines, this was a common off-label treatment for Covid.”

    “I do not know the motivation for demonizing this particular medication,” he added. “But I would imagine some of it has to do with money because… this a generic drug now. The patent has run out… and it’s worth like 30 cent per dose.”

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/10/26/joe_rogan_says_dr_pierre_kory_treated_200_members_of_congress_with_ivermectin.html

    1. “I do not know the motivation for demonizing this particular medication,” he added.

      Trump derangement syndrome.

    2. One New Year’s Eve, on night shift, I was double-crewed with a comely woman officer. We were sent to a report of a noisy party that was keeping a neighbour awake.

      It turned out that the complainant was the only woman in the Close who had not been invited to the party. The party was not noisy in the least, still I was obliged to knock on the door. The gorgeous young woman who answered the door asked why we were there. I told her that I was just checking that their party was being enjoyed to the full. She invited us in and offered us a drink. When I (naturally) declined I was approached by another young woman who walked right up to me. She looked me in the eye from a distance of two inches and said, “Officer, do you realise where you are standing?” I had scant opportunity to check that I was not standing with dirty shoes on a clean carpet as she pointed to a bunch of mistletoe directly above my head. Before I had an opportunity to say anything she grabbed me and gave me the most delicious snog!

      As this happened, a male stepped forward and asked my colleague if he could do the same to her. She was delighted to comply to his request. Next, suitably snogged, we retreated, wishing all a Happy New Year and urging all present to continue to enjoy their party.

      Some jobs are much harder than others.

    3. I decided to do it for the craic.

      It really pissed me off that pubs had to have permission for people to dance.

    2. Word of the day is ‘breed-bate’ (16th century): one who is always looking for an argument or is ready to pick a fight.
      Anne (now plastic Annie) Robinson………..goodbye !

  77. Meghan and Prince Charles could be dragged into Prince Andrew sex case as witnesses
    Virginia Giuffre’s lawyer says Duchess can be ‘counted on to tell the truth’ but said he is unlikely to depose the Queen ‘out of respect’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/12/22/meghan-markle-could-called-witness-prince-andrews-sex-case-brought/

    Of course the lily-livered, yellow-bellied, craven-hearted DT allows no comments.

    It strikes me that if you did an analysis of this American lawyer you would find he is made of pure excrement.

    That Migraine can be ‘counted on to tell the truth’ is about as big a lie as you could invent!

    1. If the lawyer thinks that any of the Royal Family would appear as witnesses he can think again. None of them in the UK would have to answer a subpoena from a US court. It is possible that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may be liable to answer a subpoena as they are resident in the US, but any defence lawyer would rip Meghan, especially, to pieces in the witness box. It’s just grandstanding by Virginia Giuffre’s lawyer.

    3. Meghan was nowhere the near the Royal family when Prince Andrew was alleged to have misbehaved. She is irrelevant. Quite apart ffrom her propensity to lie – ie tell “her truth”.

      2. Who do we believe? The attention seeking American actress or Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth?

        Answers on a postage stamp.

      3. How do we know that she was not involved with the other end of the operation? I must admit that that was my first thought…

  78. Isn’t it kind of Dear Leader Johnson to confirm that there will be no new restrictions imposed before Christmas? Isn’t it great to be able to plan with certainty a whole FOUR DAYS in advance?

    Is this what life has come to in Britain? Waiting on a daily, even hourly basis for the next missives from on high to tell us if we can or can’t live our lives? Could Johnson not simply declare that the ‘war’ on Covid is over and let us go about our business as we see fit?

    1. He’s probably watching Israel, Belgium, Fance, and could probably hear the fights outside his flat this week.
      He is stuck between the vested interests that fund the Tory party and hold his Arcuri file, and the knowledge that if the proles find out how they’ve been screwed over he may end up hanging from a lamppost.
      I do not envy him.

  79. Spam but I suspect there could be a market!

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    1. I haven’t been able to walk more than a few yards without pain because my operation in February was cancelled. I think i might give them a call. It would at least pay for a mobility scooter.

      1. One knows it’s bad when one can’t even stagger when drunk.

        My mother had a poor outcome after a hip replacement, she should have sued them but she refused because all it would do was take money out of the NHS!!!

  80. That’s a marathon putting-away of food over – anybody would have though that Christmas shutdown lasted until Easter! How much food can one have in a house – and still have place to live??

      2. And sausage rolls, mince pies, cheeses, pate, 30 lbs of Sprouts, 15 lbs of spuds, crusty bread….

      1. Anyone got Santa’s mobile number? Perhaps he could be persuaded to perform a similar act on the chimney at No, 10.

  82. What’s a person to do?
    Imagine the UK with a hurricane coming toward us. The PM orders an evacuation. All cars head north. They all need to be charged in Birmingham. How does that work? Has anyone thought about this? If all cars were electric, and were caught up in a three-hour traffic jam with dead batteries, then what? Not to mention that there is virtually no heating or air conditioning in an electric vehicle because of high battery consumption.
    If you get stuck on the road all night, no battery, no heating, no windshield wipers, no radio, no GPS (all these drain the batteries), all you can do is try calling 999 to take women and children to safety. But they cannot come to help you because all roads are blocked, and they will probably require all police cars will be electric also. When the roads become unblocked no one can move! Their batteries are dead.
    How do you charge the thousands of cars in the traffic jam? Same problem during summer vacation departures with miles of traffic jams. There would be virtually no air conditioning in an electric vehicle. It would drain the batteries quickly. Where is this electricity going to come from? Today’s grid barely handles users’ needs. Can’t use nuclear, natural gas is running out. Oil fired is out of the question, then where?
    What will be done with billions of dead batteries, can’t bury them in the soil, can’t go to landfills.
    The cart is way ahead of the horse. No thought whatsoever to handle any of the problems that batteries can cause.
    The liberal press doesn’t want to talk or report on any of this.
    In France, thousands of taxis are now stored as inoperable because the batteries are dead and to replace them would cost more than the value of the vehicle itself!

    1. I agree in the most part but those stored taxis were stored because no one could or would use them.

        1. Dozens of electric cars were left in a field in France because the
          company’s contract with local authorities ran out and not because of an
          issue with their battery storage cells as social media users questioning
          the environmental benefits of electric cars are claiming.

          Reuters.

    2. In the Carolinas, if a serious tropical storm or hurricane is approaching, the interstates to the shore are reversed and the whole road then heads away from the impending storm. You see signs along the roads- Hurricane Evacuation Route.

      1. Just read a story on the Mail of a trans man and his husband – the trannie stopped his hormone treament and gave birth. The photos of the two beardies were disturbing. He was upset because the nurses called him “Mom”.

        2. Does no-one consider how confused this child might be when it’s old enough to “understand”? I have long been a supporter of gay rights but some of this stuff is simply ridiculous.

        4. If a person’s born with bollocks he’s a bloke,
          If a person’s born with bollocks he’s a bloke,
          If a person’s born with bollocks,
          Though they call him Betty Swollocks,
          If a person’s born with bollocks he’s a bloke!

          Chorus:-
          You can shove your Trannie bullshit up your arse,
          You can shove your Trannie bullshit up your arse,
          You can shove your Trannie bullshit,
          It’s really such a farce,
          You can shove your Trannie bullshit up your arse!

          If a baby’s got a fanny, it’s a girl,
          If a baby’s got a fanny, it’s a girl,
          If a baby’s got a fanny,
          Just like your dear old Grannie,
          If a baby’s got a fanny, it’s a girl!

          If a baby’s got a willie, it’s a lad,
          If a baby’s got a willie, it’s a lad,
          If a baby’s got a willie,
          Don’t start being silly,
          If a baby’s got a willie, it’s a lad!

    1. But… I thought we were told earlier in the year that there wouldn’t be enough sprouts for Christmas?

      1. That is so last Autumn. The latest scare tactic is a lack of gas.

        Obviously because there are no sprouts !

        1. Never tried that version. Honey might be OK, maybe thinned with some soy sauce. But more bacon would be my recommendation.

    3. Apparently it’s been a good year for sprouts. Bought 2 bags in Asda for 20p each – quite big bags and also 1 kg of carrots for 20p. I love raw carrots. Just call me Bugs Bunny ;-))

    7. The bacteria in our bodies turns the sulphur into hydrogen sulphide and methyl mercaptan and these, when added to the fart gas already being produced, are what causes sprout farts to be so pungent. …
      :-D)

      2. It’s good to know about the science when MH is polluting the atmosphere as far away as, oh say Norway! ;-)) Evil laughter.

    9. The conflation of Happy Hour with Brussels Sprouts constitutes an oxymoron, sweetie!

      I abhor Brussels sprouts … x

      2. Brussels sprouts are my second fave veg, after swede. The two served together with a strong meaty gravy can’t be beaten.

    1. Considering almost one in four people in England live the London area I suppose it is nothing unusual.

    2. Can anyone find the statistics about hospitalisations regarding demographics along with underlying conditions and vaccination status?

          1. Don’t be silly.
            For data SAGE people lick a finger, point it in the air and then double the first number that pops into their heads

          2. They might well do that, it wouldn’t surprise me. Even so, there has to be a database where these facts are pumped into from each hospital. ONS maybe?

          3. I doubt it.

            The NHS, for all the pretendy “national” about it, is a large number of separate entities.
            Few of them “talk” to each other and even fewer report figures in exactly the same way. Anyone looking into the figures will hit that problem.

          4. Tut, you’ve missed two important stages.
            They multiply the answer by their phone number and then deduct grannie’s birthday.

          5. Probably true, but that’s degree level nowadays, so it’s far beyond my computational skills.

            Next time I’ll ask a lawyer, they seem to adhere to the “think of a fee and differentiate it, then extrapolate it, and then double it”, school of mathematics.

          6. SAGE comprise boughten academics from Gates and CCP funded institutions with a cohort of behavioural scientists who know sweet FA about everything and everything about sweet FA.

          8. They don’t want to appear racist. But let’s face it. We already know who the majority in London don’t want the therapy.

          10. You never do. Any time there are large protests or even patriotic parades they are not there.

            Just scan all the pics from when her Maj is about or celebrations that we British hold dear. They are not there in any recognisable numbers…ever.

            Except for looting. Then they are all black. Is this a racist statement? Yes. Doesn’t make it any less true though.

        1. Cheers, Tables 8, 9, 10a and 10b are quite interesting. You’ve got to have your thinking cap on to get an overall picture though. Lots of caveats and ‘unlinked’ cases (I get the impression these are people not ‘in the system’). Plus the time lag as it is from weeks 46-49.

      4. There were some demographic breakdowns in Canada when the rot started. Blacks (by whatever name) were much more likely to catch covid than whites or asians. It quickly descended into a white privilege exercise when they started blaming poor medical care blah de blah for the difference in cases.

        Even now when they roll out boosters or whatever, it is over 80s and first nations to the front of the line.

    3. Can anyone find the statistics about hospitalisations regarding demographics along with underlying conditions and vaccination status?

    4. Philip Johnston in the TeleGuardiangraph refers to a statement by Mayor Khan criticising London Muslims, Jews, Africans and Bames in general for not following their masters’ orders and taking whitey’s needle. The article attracted 5500 BTL comments, whereupon the conversation was closed. There is no evidence that any particular population is more resistant or vulnerable to the Sars Cov 2 virus than any other population. (‘population’ is a more acceptable word than ‘race’)
      However, diabetes and obesity have been observed to be risk factors.

      1. Whatever else one says about those “populations”, they stick together.
        In the long term they might possibly be the control group that allows the rest of the population to take the vaxxers to the courts for lying.

  95. That’s me for the day. Opened a bottle of prosecco to toast the decorations. It was disgusting. Made plaque remover seem a nice drink!

    Still – it has alcohol in it…apparently.

    I shall look forward to seeing you all on the morrow (after Fakenham Market). Have a cool evening.

    A demain.

      1. I much prefer Prosecco with brandy, Phil …

        Goes down well with large prawns with lemon and parsley / lime and coriander 🙂

      2. Prosecco is the Babycham of sparkling wines.

        A good Cremant beats many more expensive champagnes and is my choice most years. I have a few bottles of Dry Monopole this year and Cremant left over from last Christmas.

        1. I was introduced to Crémant in about 1967 by my godmother.
          She served a sparkling Burgundy, I was hooked and ever since I would always take 3 or 4 bottles of a Crémant over one of Champagne every time.

  96. Thanks to Nottlers who found shortfalls in my calculation of viral transmission in the UK based on the Omicron COVID-19 variant. I had to transfer the Google Sheets data source to Excel on my PC before I could create a graph that would show the complete picture:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c535b9079a44209ffad7cf01734eb0a94c51460b88790387c9c1b3dc910c7638.jpg

    I have named critical lines/intersections after Nottlers who contributed to the final picture.

    In the past few days it has become apparent that confusion can arise by assuming that PCR (whole genome) confirmed cases are the same as the reduced sensitivity Lateral Flow detected infection cases.
    It should be noted that the former are a subset of the latter as depicted in the image below:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/35e644756e8170b7bb7332a2186e345001fb2a19baf1ec00e029cb9c1a9e73fd.jpg

  97. 343120+ up ticks,

    May one ask,
    How in hell’s name can he be seen as an authority on Christianity ?

    Jabs 4 Jesus? Refusing Vaccination Goes Against Christianity, Says Archbishop

      1. 343120+ up ticks,

        Evening C,
        There are a multitude of those about, covert protectors of the tory (ino) party prepared to “march” to an anti English / United Kingdom tune if it suits their purposes.

        Their coalition partners lab are seemingly courting
        the bog man in a joint anti English / United Kingdom enterprise and believe me they will have peoples
        backing & consent.

        1. Whilst I loathe and despise Blair I now see that Johnson is even more evil than Blair. Johnson has the same snake oil salesman technique but with his pretence at a bungling oaf yet he is a calculating and ruthless person seeking power to himself and giving no thought to those his policies affect adversely.

          I wish both Blair and Johnson consigned to Hell.

          1. I agree with your last sentence, but without Blair and his wrecking crew Johnson would not have been possible.
            Blair is evil incarnate.

          3. How do you make that out?
            Blair signed up to the then new European constitution; unless you are suggesting that that was the straw that broke the camel’s back…

          4. Had he limited migration from the ex-communist bloc members that joined the EU from 2004, we would never have had the mass migration that turned so many more people against it.

          5. True, but the Eastern European influx isn’t/wasn’t a patch on the deluge of sewage caused by his HRA legislation.

            But crediting Blair with Brexit as a result of that is like crediting Trump with Biden’s election.

          6. EU law allowed the UK to limit migration to 12,000 a year for seven years. Hundreds of thousands poured in, many of them to parts of provincial and rural England that were largely untouched by large scale immigration from anywhere. And it wasn’t gradual.

          7. I completely agree that that was a disaster, but the HRA side allowed tens of thousands of gimmegrants every year to pour in from Africa and the ME with next to no chance of getting shot of them.
            An open till for lawyers, an open pass for people smugglers and no end in sight.
            And all down to Blair and his wrecking crew.

            At least most of the Europeans share some common values with us. None of the MENA’s do.

          8. The ECHR and post-2003 EU migration are really separate issues. It was the latter that turned sentiment against the EU.

          9. The EHCR and the HRA are also separate issues.
            I think that people, by and large, accepted the European influx, it was the arrival of non-Europeans that broke the back.
            One of numerous articles:
            https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/mar/24/how-immigration-came-to-haunt-labour-inside-story
            And from a different angle:
            https://theconversation.com/the-huge-political-cost-of-blairs-decision-to-allow-eastern-european-migrants-unfettered-access-to-britain-66077

          10. I saw Cameron (who at the time was PM) and Johnson together at some sort of public do. Cameron attempted to interact with Johnson, his rank inferior at that time. Johnson simply ignored Cameron’s efforts, in a manner as such that he (Cameron) wasn’t there. Johnson publicly humiliated him. I have no particular regard for Cameron, but I knew exactly what sort of a man was Johnson. Some lowly beast in terms of human values.

          13. I look at it differently. I think they’re all sewage of the same ilk. However I don’t want them dead. I want them under the thumb.

            Referism, recall and direct democracy. Render them powerless. If they wat so badly to get elected, let them. And then as soon as they try to pass policy for their chums, we say no. If they’re – no, sorry, *when* they’re found fiddling, we find them a nice little cell and a fair confiscation of assets.

    3. 343120+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      This I see as one of the nicer comments,

      Get out of the church you woke infiltrator.

      Shame on him. This is no man of God, but One of satans little helpers.

  98. Radio 4, ‘PM’ tonight: “New infections number more than 100,000 in a day for the first time but there might also be some good news.”

    Well, I listened from the start and the only immediate follow up to that was that JCVI has approved vaccinations for ‘vulnerable’ primary school-age children. Surely that wasn’t the good news? No, but more of that in a moment.

    The presenter, Evan Davis, first interviewed Adam Finn of JCVI. He said to him that it was such an obvious thing to do (vaccinate children) so why hadn’t we done it before. Finn said it certainly wasn’t obvious. Davis sailed on and asserted that the UK’s booster programme was slow off the mark. No it wasn’t, said Finn. Davis performed the radio equivalent of not batting an eyelid. What a performer. Well done to Prof Finn for standing up to him.

    The quite possibly, almost hopefully, maybe something like good news came from our old friend, Prof Spiegelhalter. He started by saying he was surprised that the 106,000 wasn’t even more and suggested that many who had DIY tests (lateral flow) and hadn’t owned up to positive results but went on to his good news, which was that early results from research gave some support to the claim that the OMG variant wasn’t so serious.

    THEN DAVIS INTERVIEWED THE BLAIR CREATURE!

    TBF, the psychopath said something that we could all agree with, which was to avoid lockdown; the public are weary of it. He then stated the obvious, which was that the NHS should be a bit quicker to respond in the future. What a performer.

    1. It doesn’t matter how many alleged cases there are. The important figures are surely numbers seriously ill and numbers of deaths.
      Even the number of hospital patients with Covid is misleading since a significant proportion only caught it once in hospitals. Makes you wonder about how good the hospital infection control and Covid protocols are.
      Of course death figures are misleading because they include the disingenuous ‘death WITH (not from) covid ‘within 28 days of a positive test, even if that person had fully recovered three weeks before.
      ‘Cases’ – what proportion are asymptomatic or only very slightly unwell?

      1. “It doesn’t matter how many alleged cases there are.”

        It does to the BBC and its love of end-of-the-world reporting.

      2. If you ramp up testing with the flawed LFT and PCR tests you will have more ‘cases’. It is the same old put rubbish in get rubbish out syndrome. A sort of mental incapacity.

        If you test negative one day you might be infected a minute after who knows. The entire testing regime is a calculated fraud as is the notion of self-isolating.

        The whole Covid narrative is a construction and designed to mislead, stoke reactions of fear and panic in an uniformed public and obtain more power and control over the population for the elites.

      3. Most hospitals have air conditioning. One single system. The same air gets recirculated to all wards. The inquiry into the many deaths at the brand new hospital in Glasgow underlines this. “Not fit for purpose” is how the brand new Sick Kids in Edinburgh has been described.

  99. Just back from a run to Derby, after leaving home at 11:00 and I see I’ve 460 unread comments!

    3. “All of the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names.” was about Rudolph the RED-nosed reindeer!

      Cartoonist failure.

      2. other reindeer are available. Incidentally, have you ever seen that epic reindeer movie on TV, filmed in Lapland? Not much of a plot, but great scenery.

          2. Possibly.
            But this and the recent SAGE comments that they only give the models politicians ask for, the recent choice of releasing all these embarrassing cheese and wine pics, and the mounting unrest makes me think someone is going to make a move.
            I have trouble believing its Starmer, but something is afoot.

          3. I think that the new variant is proving that all the panic was unnecessary and that all those involved are distancing themselves as far and as fast as possible.

    3. Why is Ferguson given government permission to spout his fatally flawed opinions to the press? The man is an idiot, has no epidemiology qualifications and is at best an incompetent mathematician or ‘mathematical modeller’ using ancient software and funded by Gates and the Chinese.

      Ferguson is programmed to provide the answers and remedies demanded by bent politicians.

    2. Then have those same enemy imported by your government, fed, housed and spoiled while your chums starve on the streets because of MoD incompetence and arrogance.

  106. Only 2 people have cancelled Christmas, Oliver Cromwell and Boris Johnson. A fitting pair.

        1. Theoretically, it is still against the law to eat Christmas Pud on Christmas Day.. it was never, to my knowledge, repealed. Now, if he’d banned Brussels sprouts he might have lasted longer…especially on this page.

          1. Yup. I love Brussels’ sprouts. We have them with chestnuts. Heaven.

            The mince pies possibly did for Cromwell.

            I am always struck by how apparently almost insignificant issues of no moment bring the mighty back to earth time and again.

            Watch the demise of Johnson and reflect. He will be brought down not by his political incompetences but by the more mundane issues over the funding of his exotic flat refurbishment at Downing Street.

          2. We love them too but just straight up as the Americans would say;-)
            It is quite often the supposed trivialities that bring the “mighty” down.

    2. Cromwell did not cancel Christmas, it was a parliamentary party, working within the elected parliament, which in the 1640s clamped down on the celebration of Christmas & other religious days, because they decided people were not behaving in a truly religious manner.
      All that can be said of his involvment is that when he became Protector, he did not rescind the parliamentary decision.

    3. Johnson is no Cromwell just as he is definitely no Churchill as advertised. He is a truly nasty piece of work, arrogant, superior in his own feeble mind, treacherous and self centred. He cares for nothing, no noble intent, no honesty and no integrity.

  107. Evening, all. The government only has itself to blame. It created the climate of fear and so fuelled the resentment of people who value their freedom.

  111. Not the best piece by Allison Pearson and anecdotes and hearsay are not hard news but…

    Spurred on by the example of 99 Tory MPs who rebelled against vaccine passports last week, several members of the Cabinet refused to sign off on further measures that would have made Christmas a misery. The resignation of the estimable Lord Frost, in protest at coronavirus restrictions, had clearly stiffened some sinews. The loss of such a like-minded ally should make the PM think twice before he goes on TV to tell the country that we are going into another lockdown lite on December 28.

    Oh, yes. ‘Fraid so. I have it on good authority from a senior figure in the food supply chain that Sainsbury’s and Asda were notified by the Government on Monday afternoon that harsher measures will start on the 28th. The supermarkets got their emails just as a wan-faced PM said in an interview that he must “reserve the possibility of taking further action”. Did Boris summon the courage to not cancel Christmas only to offer the scaremongering scientists the consolation prize of a blighted New Year, as in Scotland?

    If so, it could be the biggest mistake of his career. We don’t need top-down mathematical modellers telling us what to do any more. Over the past week, we have been weighing up our own Covid risks, staying home if we are unwell, judging what is in the best interests of our loved ones this Christmas. As people have always done, and always will. How are the police supposed to arrest anyone who hosts an illicit New Year’s Eve bash when we now know that those who made the rules were breaking them in Westminster last festive season? I reckon mass non-compliance is practically guaranteed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/12/21/cheering-christmas-message-time-humanity-prevail-scientists/

  113. I wonder if Tony Blair has been double vaxed and boostered.

    If the conspiracy theory that the vaccines are deliberately designed to exterminate a significant proportion of the human population then it seems to me that Blair will be in on it and will make sure that he himself is not given the gene therapy and has Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc and Ivermectin readily to hand so that he will be safe if he catches a cold.

    Of course this is a fantastic and absurd conspiracy theory and of course even to postulate as to whether there is any truth in it brands you as, to quote from Blair himself, “an idiot”. And what about the Archidiot of Canterbury? Has he had the jabs?

    Mind you, the 2020 conspiracy theories that Covid came out of the Wuhan Lab and that Vaccine Pisspots would be introduced have been proved in 2021 to be conspiracy theories so we were wise not to have been taken in by them weren’t we?

    1. Take heart Richard. The wheels are falling off the Covid conspiracy by the day or hour even.

      When a lie is exposed it is very difficult for the liar to seek refuge. This lot of conspirators are worn out, their cloth threadbare and their integrity zilch!

Comments are closed.